For any company or enterprise, reporting was traditionally an add-on afterthought along with the software that was built to support transactional process automation. The new data economy has changed that paradigm and data is seen as the key asset that every company wants to monetize. In an increasingly uncertain world, knowledge is precious, and— data — is hugely valuable and getting the analytics strategy right to give the business and its customers a competitive edge, is critical for success. Every company wants to find ways to accelerate the ability to create revenue from existing assets like data, market share, domain expertise, technology, people and operational excellence. When data was simple, producing insights was simple too but as data has become complex, the demands on data have also become more complex. Business analysts need to be able to refine the analysis and perform complex calculations on Big data and to connect data from many sources they have, in order to reveal the best insights that will move the needle. This has set the stage for the rise of embedded analytics versus in house solutions since the Analytics tech has to keep pace with the latest in AI and ML for speed, scale and convenience. With Sisense Embed SDK, you can focus on higher-value tasks like building tailor-made analytic apps and software instead of spending time and effort building boilerplate code, complicated communication logic, or other integration details. New features make it even easier for product teams to build and scale custom actionable analytic modules and integrate them seamlessly into other applications. Embed SDK is a suite of JavaScript APIs delivered as a JS library. It minimizes developer resources to manage complex communication between an application and the embedded analytics dashboards New Embedded Dashboard Designer allow end-clients environment to independently design and customize widgets and dashboards directly within their deployment Embed Code UI Generator automatically generates various code snippets needed to embed Sisense dashboards and widgets in external applications A lot of the enterprises today use data to increase the value of the software they create and some examples and Use Cases are described below – A free, anonymous 24/7 text-based crisis intervention organization uses data to create positive change in the world. It analyses text conversations in real-time using natural language processing and machine learning to pull insights from its rich dataset and identifies keywords in texts to help steer a counsellor towards a safe resolution. This augments its extremely qualified volunteers to understand what has helped intervene positively in the past in order to save more lives on the call, in real-time and eventually tie this to employee performance. A multidisciplinary electronic medical records software technology provider that services the elderly care market empowers their clients by embedding Sisense into its platform. The data includes Practice management, EMR and other data sources merged to provide a consolidated view for the healthcare providers to generate meaningful insights for improving actions and outcomes. These insights decide which care paths are successful leading to improved patient care. With their data philosophy squarely focused on what it calls “patient intelligence” this company has allowed doctors and nurses to spend more time on patient care and minimize patient readmissions. A leading global provider of Fleet management and insurance telematics services and solutions for mobile asset management and recovery, and workforce optimization uses Sisensefor embedded Analytics and BI. Its customer telematics web interface provides a comprehensive set of BI features ensuring the optimization of both fleet and human resources by providing Operational reporting, integrated Analytics services which includes driver risk assessment. Embedding Sisense has allowed them to augment and evolve their BI and Analytics capabilities while allowing them the focus on their core competencies. A Global Fortune 500 Financial company embedded Sisense to provide reporting and dash boarding capabilities to provide Self-service Financial portfolio and Investment Analytics for their global client base. With self-service, IT teams now have more time to focus on business analysis rather than generating reports. This has increased the value proposition for their customers with self-service tracking of account , portfolio performance and metrics since the clients can define, analyse and drill down into their data and get insights any time they want. The need is for Data to recommend actions, not just build KPIs and reports anymore. Sisense Forecast is an advanced AI-powered forecasting option that offers unique capabilities to derive new value from data without the need for data science expertise. With a single click, an ensemble of univariate forecast models run against the data. An AI algorithm selects the best model based on the type of data analysed and additional variable can be added to the forecast to create a multivariate forecast. Sisense Quest is the latest add-on from our Labs team. It allows business to harness the power of data science by delivering new insights from data with a library of out-of-the-box statistical models, such as What-If and Trend Analysis. In addition, one can deploy and operationalize their own machine learning models to all users by uploading custom Python. To help make sure that insights are always actionable, a variety of suggested actions or new ones can be tailored to create rich dynamic Actionable Analytics withSisense Blox Daemon Software is a Sisense APAC partner working on BI and Big Data solutions. Get in touch at sales@daemon.co.in or consultants@daemon.com.sg to evaluate how your company can benefit with Embed Analytics and BI.

Analytical Reporting is useful to understand trends and to strategize based on the reports, and all organizations collect and safe-keep data, which can be used for creating periodic reports. Same is the case with eLearning. Since LMS is the software platform through which eLearning happens, it should enable Analytical Reporting to see progress of the learners or understand usage and engagement. This has been recognized by most of the LMS Product vendors and they provide this facility in their software. Reporting is of 2 types: Canned analytical reports Ad-hoc analytical reports Canned Analytical Reports are developed upfront during the implementation of the LMS. Or they are developed during use of the system. The Report format and information required is well-defined and hence these are generated as per set parameters. These are usually generated on a frequent basis and the users of the reports are assigned. Adhoc Analytical reports are more complex. This is required by users who want to view information in different ways. So this requires a tool which should be able to retrieve data and performs transformations. The tool would require more processing power. These reports are usually for decision making. Let us now look at what are the analytical reports which are needed for an LMS and what they achieve: Number of Registrations for a course: This indicates the popularity of a course. It also indicates what type of course is more popular. For example video courses would be more popular than PDF content courses. Time spent on each course: This indicates a mix of the popularity of the course as also the complexity of the course. For example video courses would engage more with the learner, and hence more time is spent on such courses. Number of feedbacks of a course: This indicates that the learners are concerned about the content in the course Time spent on Assessments: This indicates the seriousness with which the learner is taking the assessment, the complexity of the assessment and the learning that the learner has acquired. Time spent on gamification quizzes: This indicates the extent to which gamification has motivated the learner and if it has served the purpose. Time spent on feedback, blogs, opinion polls, surveys etc.: This indicates the extent to which the learner is active in providing feedback to improve the learning experience Individual learner’s progress report: This indicates the extent to which the learner is progressing in the assigned learning activity. Individual learner’s learning capability report: This indicates the number of attempts the learner is taking to clear the assessment, the pass percentage in each attempt and the duration of time taken to complete the assessment. Relative cost of learning: This is very difficult to measure in case of learning. But it can be simplified as (Individual’s total learning cost/Score in the first assessment). Lower the cost, the better the achievement of the learning. The compliance Analytical reports would be: Who is, or is not enrolled? What are the start, end and due dates? Who is complete, or not-complete with their required courses? Number of logins or sessions Number of course visits Number of resource views Attendance data Completion rate Certificates issued or expired Audit trail reporting Please ask us for a demo of our KLIP LMS from Daemon software which helps organizations track progress of the learners and understand the engagement and outcomes of the learning platform. You can contact us at sales@daemon.co.in .

Learning and development has 2 perspectives. One from the learner’s view and the other from the organization’s view. The learner views the learning exercise as an opportunity to enhance his skills with respect to his job and sometimes more than that. He has his own view of skills needed for his career growth, both in the company and sometimes outside of it. The company sees the learning exercise as an exercise to provide skills for his current job responsibilities and roles he is charted for as part of his career path. Considering both the perspectives, there is definitely an overlap between the both. Firstly in terms of current skills requirement and the application of the learning skills inside the company. KLIP LMS is geared for applied learning. It supports the 2 perspectives mentioned above. The learner is able to access the learning calendar and can nominate himself for the trainings, which he is interested in within a structured or career progression related learning. The company can nominate the learner for trainings that are relevant to him. Also the trainings can be made mandatory and set as precursor for career growth e.g. Promotions. KLIP LMS has the ability to store all types of scorm-compliant and other types of content. Hence the content can be in form of audios, videos, animation etc. which can depict real job situations and case studies and this learning simulates job-oriented learning. Since there are various feedback/Communication/Collaboration mechanisms such as blogs, feedback, polls, queries, surveys etc. the learner can ask the job related questions which pop up in his mind during the learning process. The instructors could be line managers themselves who have experience and expertise to provide the answers. This makes sure the learner is learning skills that are applicable for his job and career growth. KLIP LMS has the facility for online assessments. The instructors can set up assessments, which will measure the learner’s ability to apply the trainings in his job and intended roles. KLIP has facilities to set up video/audio/animation/html etc. questions with multiple choice/match-the following/fill-in-blanks /descriptive answers. Reports which show the progress of the learner in terms of skills acquisition are also available in KLIP LMS. KLIP LMS has a gamification module. Hence, the learner can be motivated to participate whole heartedly in the learning with incentives for teams and individuals. The quizzes and competitions can be tailored to measure skill acquisition for applied learning and badges, medals, points and gifts can be awarded. In these ways, KLIP enables applied learning. Contact us at +91980073218 or sales@daemon.co.in for a demo on how you can enable your teams to up skill while on the job

The traditional Education system meant direct face to face interaction between the Instructors and the learners. There was a huge cost with respect to time, money, facilities, logistics, assessments etc. Both the instructors and the learners would have to devote their time for the education. Facilities such as hall, projectors, boards etc. were to be arranged. Logistics was involved in moving the human resources between different physical sites. Assessments were a time-consuming, painful and a stressful exercise. It also placed a restriction on the number of learners and instructors. Since education was limited to a few, it meant that education was costlier. In this situation, the Learning Management Systems are disrupting traditional education in a positive way. For example, KLIP LMS (http://www.klip-tech.com) by Daemon software is one such LMS. Here the educational medium is content. This content can be in form of any SCORM compliant content such as PDF, MS word, PPT, MS Excel, video, audio, html etc. This content is hosted on to the KLIP LMS. The content is classified and structured for easy browsing and learning. The learners access this educational content and learn through laptops, desktops or smartphones at their own pace. Since the content can be in many formats, it is a fun way of learning too. The assessments are taken online, the marks and ranks are also conducted online. As it is noticed, compared to the traditional method of education described in above, there is a huge reduction in capital and operating expenditures. Since the teaching is recurring to repeated batches, the Learning Management System (LMS) way is more adapted to this and does not require a repeated exercise but just adding the required number of users. Also there is a socio-economic benefit to the society because the number of learners can be huge and the number of faculty can be less. This reduces the capex and opex for any company or institute, which in return results in reduced cost of education. Also the not so brilliant learners can take a more closely monitored interactive guidance from the Instructors, online. In a nutshell, LMS is taking education to the common man and the cost compared to the traditional medium is comparatively low which makes it more affordable.

Today we see a lot of people positioning or marketing themselves as advisers on sales , operation and strategy and providing retainer and other forms of transactional advisory to start ups and small companies. One can definitely see a value in such services in oft repeated scenarios where experience helps make judicious decisions upfront because the cost of making up for the mistakes is lethal in a lot of cases for these start ups . One can often see start-up company founders take on the Sales, finance and Operations role on top of the strategic decision making role only to fail short at one or more of these responsibilities to the determent of the company , and this is where getting the right advisor on board helps these start-ups. These advisors not only provide mentorship but bring relevant experiences to help these start-ups make very critical decisions. Hence it is very important to choose the right advisers, who play a part in the journey and I have seen that too often these advisers don’t have the depth or understanding of the industry or role and relate their total years of experience as the panacea for all the advice they pour. Company founders and managers need to very carefully vet the advisers as a lot of these roles get started because of acquaintance or known references and when expectations are not met things turn very sour. How do you then evaluate and judge a person who can unequivocally add value to your endeavour. Please look at the following aspects as a framework to make this decision. Understand why you need an adviser and vet it out with a few colleagues and mentors because it could be that you just don’t have enough helping hands to execute which then becomes Operational cost /hiring decision. Make a list of activities/goals you expect from the adviser and be as detailed as possible. Abstract or 10,000 feet level objectives can lead to problems of gauging the value created. Most advisers who are confident about adding value will be okay with this approach and if someone balks at it you know this person may not be the right fit. If you know the adviser personally get another individual to assess them as relationships sometime can gloss over key evaluation criteria. If it’s an unknown person check their profile since a lot of them are the Manager types from Service companies where they would have picked people management skills but not skills on technology vision , domain or how to solve a business problem. The 2K euphoria created a lot of these managers who did not or could not, go beyond the paper / tool pusher role. If you are familiar with development levels theory or have read the book Systems thinking you don’t want an Adviser at level 3 because he/she knows to follow the process not how to develop capability or collaboratively define and implement organizational objectives for sustainable success Beware of Sales and strategic Advisers who don’t want to work based on targets – They may be a super star reference but most likely will not create any value for you unless you define the goals upfront because they got their just because of the process and are at Level 3 of following the process. If possible make sure they have skin in the game as that really helps make the most of the relationship both ways If they have been an entrepreneur assess what part of that experience will fit your gaps. An adviser needs to have breadth and depth in equal parts and help Surface and Resolve Conflicts within your think tank or the decision making process   When picking an adviser following some of these lines of thinking and conversations could help Can they form and explain their opinions in an area related to your domain? What critical decisions did they take or what was the biggest mistake they made. Why did they do what they did? What would they do differently? Find their areas of expertise and present an issue/topic which may be of a slightly different kind. Can they apply their thinking/experience to solve a different problem? Most advisers can follow a set process – can they adjust, to a tweak of the problem? Refer Development level theory point above. Do they have string network they can bring to be leveraged What is their strengths? Can they be good at either sales or technical leadership and what do you need Does their style work with yours?   Once you are ready to take them on board its important to follow a process Give them goals based on timelines What can they do in 3 months or 6 months? Set the time you expect them to spend and importantly communication checkpoints. Do they have a good communication style. Look for the 6 C’s – Concise, Clear, Caring, Current/Relevant, Consistent and Constructive STYLE. I personally feel the search costs of finding the right adviser in this crowded market is the same as finding the right developer though there are plenty you see on Naukri kind of portals.

In today’s technology driven world the more the number of minds put together for a solution, the more efficient and effective it is. This is the basic premise on which collaboration is encouraged in modern day education and industrial activity. Also the burst of devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops which can run the LMS is leading to collaboration by anyone from anywhere, anytime. Take for example the education at the university level. Here the courses are flexible and needs to be tuned to the learner’s capability and knowledge. The Learning Management System (LMS) used should have the capability to allow academic experts to group together and create the courses by contributing as a group. Also there should be a feature to create sub-groups for personalized learning. Also the assignments and assessments should be created collaboratively and be more enriching. Taking an industry example, consider the design of a new car. The design engineers, Production engineers, Production planning and Control engineers etc. need to collaborate during the initial phases. The knowledge shared by each person adds up to the overall design of the car. Also in today’s Information driven world, there is a learning loop in which the learner’s feedback is incorporated into the training imparted. In the academics example, the learners would be the peers, counsellors and students and in the industry example the learners would be the senior management, Marketing personnel, junior engineers, Foremen, technicians etc.There can be feedback over chat, e-mail, discussion forum, blog, surveys, opinion polls which needs to be monitored, reviewed and incorporated for the next round of training in order to make it more meaningful and enriching. This would also help in segmenting the learners into active and passive ones which further on helps in deciding the grouping for further personalized training.

Enabling businesses drive participation, engagement, employee productivity and effective last mile customer sales and service in the service industries with a game based approach to Service Enablement Why customer service is becoming a differentiator for Store Performance in the any customer facing Industry ? Customer service and cross selling are vitally important differentiators across the many services industry, and customer experience drives loyalty and cross-product holdings. The challenge is to develop a customer experience model that treats each customer as an individual and maintains satisfaction and loyalty levels that drives a customer back to the service point and enables customer monetization. Recently I was at a upscale coffee shop where I ordered a Chai Latte. The brew was pre mixed with sugar and the the person serving was unaware of the same and pointed me to where the sugar was kept and luckily I tasted the brew before I was going to add some sugar. I would expect something as basic as this to be handled by a person who knows what he is selling but alas for a INR 170 brew that still was not the case . In another case a bank rolled out a new feature set on their web application and the person doing training for us seemed to have no clue on what and how did the new set of features behave and what data sets were pre requisites etc and our employees were in fact training this banking employee which was quite funny. The problem today is that the service personnel are so overloaded the learning has slowed and companies put un- trained people in front of the customer to serve our products and services. It’s a big issue because they may keep losing customers due to the miserable service experience or other product and service issues and these are not even complicated skilled scenarios but one that involves basic training’s Some of the best employees out there are positive thinkers, driven by research and never-ending curiosity to discover fast-growing markets, new technologies, and new techniques to make them succeed in the competitive service industry. The making of a great service or sales person is no easy task; we are constantly dealing with the changes in the sales and service world. The world is no longer the one we have learned to live in. The challenge of directly linking branch level customer service to profits has been understood though efforts to improve customer service and cross product sales have not been measured conclusively. However, there was is a common belief that customer experience would remain a key battle ground for many industries going forward and bench marking customer service would become a more common process when developing a perfect customer experience model. High levels of employee engagement will facilitate the delivery of improved levels of sales and customer service. For example in banking with the branches becoming one more channel than the prime channel due to proliferation of online channels, attention on employee engagement has to be treated as a strategic task that can change the profitability of these companies. The key problem today is these employees don’t have time to be properly trained and when they do have time during less busy days companies are not able ensure they can do BYTE sized learning to upgrade their capabilities. Customer service training can be encouraged in non-formal settings supported by strong touch point-level observation and feedback. A significant number of companies also operate some form of reward and recognition scheme based around the branch customer service experience. So, what do we do? How do we make sure that the teams are most aptly prepared salesman or customer service folks for today’s changing world? The answer lies in continuous training but maybe in short bursts called Micro learning. In the sales world, some may refer to it as ‘in-field coaching’. It has the same concept as on-the-job training that we know so well where we have a Buddy to guide and refresh us – Our Daemon Knowledge Learning and Information Platform (KLIP) can help to improve your online sales learning or the customer service training and also ensure that on-field experiences translate into learning materials that can be accessed by all employees anytime, anywhere. Current Training Models and their Effectiveness Our research finds that few companies have a structured ongoing training program for new joiners and almost no framework for ongoing customer engagement and domain based skill upgrade programs and training for current sales and service employees. There is regular product or service training but it always in the end comes to “Smile and be Nice” as the key training message. The employment of part-time resources to back fill the absentee roles and also some full-timer roles also results in bad customer service. There is no time to train part-time resources, and they have been put on the job with hardly any training. Yes, there are challenges to ongoing employee training as they work a 10-hour shift and employees often complain they have no time or inclination for training before or after their shift. There have been attempts to put a formal training process for new associates in larger conglomerates, and they have programs built for different customer and branch operational situations. The success rates have been mixed and there have not been any significant levels of increased branch performance that has been observed because even though the intent and content may be there the INCENT is missing. Gamification as a Learning Vehicle for Sales and Service Professionals Gamification has been used by companies to engage their customers for some time now, using social media and mobile technologies to deliver contests, challenges and rewards. Now, however, enterprises are beginning to uncover the value that games can add inside the organization to drive business performance by training and motivating employees. Growing seriousness about Gamification marks a dramatic change in the way enterprises engage with their sales employees for higher customer service.ELearning can help you deliver savings upwards of 50%